Amazon WorkSpaces Applications adds support for Windows Desktop OS

Amazon WorkSpaces Applications now supports the ability to set up streaming resources powered by Windows Desktop operating systems using Bring Your Own License (BYOL). Customers can now bring their existing Windows Desktop licenses to support their eligible Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, delivering a consistent and familiar desktop experience as users move between on-premises and virtual desktop environments.

With BYOL support on WorkSpaces Applications, the operating system is hosted on hardware dedicated to the customer's AWS account, enabling customers to stream Windows desktop applications and full desktop experiences at scale. Customers benefit from cost savings by bringing their existing Windows Desktop OS licenses, eliminating OS fees so they only pay for compute and streaming infrastructure. When the local device and the streaming session both run the same Windows Desktop OS, users apply the same workflows, shortcuts, and navigation in both environments. This removes the cognitive overhead of adapting to a different desktop experience when switching between local and remote work, reducing onboarding time.

Windows Desktop for WorkSpaces Applications is available in multiple AWS Regions. For the list of supported regions, see Amazon WorkSpaces Applications BYOL documentation.

To take advantage of BYOL on WorkSpaces Applications, organizations must meet Microsoft's licensing requirements and commit to running a minimum number of streaming resources in a given AWS Region each month. To learn more about eligibility requirements and getting started, see the Amazon WorkSpaces Applications documentation and FAQs.